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27 May 2017

Mere Apne (1971)

Directed by: Gulzar

Music: Salil Choudhury

Lyrics: Gulzar

Starring: Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna,

Shatrughan Sinha, Ramesh Deo,

Sumita Sanyal, Paintal,

Asrani, Danny Denzongpa,

Deven Verma, Yogita Bali

In my tribute to VinodKhanna, I wrote that the song that comes to mind when I think of the late actor
is Koi hota jisko apna from Mere Apne. As it happens, Mere Apne was his first film with Gulzar,
who debuted as a director with this film. Mere
Apne also starred one of my favourite actresses – Meena Kumari – in what
would be one of her last roles. What’s more, the music was composed by Salil
Choudhury. All this combined to make me revisit the film recently.

Anandi (Meena
Kumari) lives a reclusive but content life in her village. She has a small
house and a mango orchard, and her late husband, Niranjan (Deven Varma) had
left her enough to live on. To this village comes Arun (Ramesh Deo) – to take Anandi
to the city with him.

Anandi is not very
sure. She is happy here. Her mango trees have grown old with her, and the mud walls
of her house speak to her. She had come into this house as a bride, and even
though Niranjan was a short-tempered man, he had loved her and taken good care
of her. Until one day, Niranjan had gone with the other men to help donate food
and clothing in the wake of a flood. He had contracted cholera and died
leaving her a young widow.

However, Arun’s
loving words warm Anandi’s heart, and upon his coaxing – ‘Come live with me as
my mother’ – she agrees to go with him. There is a tangible relief that, in her
old age, she has someone to call her own. In the city, Lata (Sumita Sanyal),
Arun’s wife, welcomes her warmly.

And soon, Pinky, their little daughter, becomes
Anandi’s responsibility. A little later, aghast at their treatment of Anandi, their maid (Leela Mishra) informs her that Arun and Lata are exploiting her. Earlier, Arun had brought another distant relative
to stay with them. That lady had been smart, however, and she had negotiated a
good salary along with food and lodging. However, as soon as she got a better offer, she
had left them high and dry. Anandi is grieved. In the meantime,
another of Arun’s cousins, Jatin (Keshto Mukherjee) comes to visit Anandi when
Arun and Lata are at work.

Anandi is not surprised when Jatin repeats Arun’s
words, almost verbatim. Not quite as naïve as she had been earlier, she asks a
visibly uncomfortable Jatin what he would pay her. She negotiates a salary of
Rs20 per month, plus boarding and lodging, and sarcastically advises him to discuss the
matter with his wife; if she agrees, Jatin can come for her.

During her
perambulations with Pinky, Anandi is also becoming aware of the tense situation
created by the presence of rival gangs in their neighbourhood. It is clear that the local residents
live in fear – one never quite knows when violence will erupt. The gang leaders
are Shyam (Vinod Khanna) and Chennu (Shatrughan Sinha).

The erstwhile
friends-turned-bitter-enemies rule the locality with fists of iron – fists that
are quick to rise to stake out and protect their turf. While Shyam’s gang is
filled with college students who, because of strikes, haven’t completed their
education, Chennu is an uneducated lout who flourishes because of political
patronage. Both gangs have no hopes of respectable employment in the current
scenario.

Anandi also meets a
little urchin (Master Chintu); the cheerful imp begs on the street, using his
day’s earnings to buy food for himself and his little polio-afflicted sister
(Baby Geeta). Anandi is aghast when she learns they are orphans. Why, in her village,
the neighbours would have taken care of the children!

Shyam is touched to
see Anandi take the little boy home with her. Unfortunately, Lata is furious. Their
home is not an orphanage, and where does Anandi think the money is coming from
to feed all and sundry?

Anandi remonstrates; she had only given the child a portion
of her meal. Besides, it’s not as if they pay
her a salary! One thing leads to another and Anandi is forced to leave Arun’s
house.

The little waif now
offers to take Anandi to his ‘home’, an abandoned building where he lives with
his sister. There, Anandi finally finds the companionship that her aching heart
desires. Not just from the little boy, but from Shyam and his friends, who now
become her ‘family’, calling her ‘naani
ma’ and according her loving respect. Shyam even bullies Arun into paying
her a month’s salary.

Soon, she’s cooking
for them, and they spend their evenings with her, telling her their stories, and
being alternately scolded and fed by her. They have precious little hope, these
young men, and their constant fights with their rivals are taking its toll.

Anandi coaxes them
to return to the village with her. Her house is large enough to accommodate
them, and the mango orchard will provide them with the means to live. Shyam is
tempted. It could be a new beginning. However, the elections are round the
corner, and one of the candidates, Biloki Prasad (Asit Sen), is paying them
good money to canvass for him. Canvassing for his rival, Shri Anokhelal
(Mehmood), is Chennu and his gang.
The stage is set for an epic clash.

Based on story by
Indra Mitra, Mere Apne is a faithful
adaptation of Tapan Sinha’s Bengali film, Apanjan.
Setagainst the student unrest of
the late 60s, the film narrates a trenchant socio-political commentary on the
disenfranchisement of the nation’s youth; woven into it is the story of an old
woman, who gladly serves her family because she sees them as her own, only to
realise that they are only exploiting her to serve their own ends.

The old woman and
these young men find their comfort in each other, each accepting of the other. The
warmth of their companionship, their unstated need for her unconditional love, and
the open-heartedness of the young waifs who take her in, are a balm to her wounded
heart.

Mere Apne is not about the relative merits of the village over the
city, or of old traditional ways over 'modern' attitudes. Gulzar keeps his directorial perspective deliberately narrow, and shows
only the perspective of an elderly woman who is plucked from all that’s
familiar and comfortable, and thrust into a more selfish world, one where she
neither understands the culture, nor can accept the behaviour. There’s no moral
judgement regarding Lata cutting her hair short, wearing ‘western’ clothes or
even going to work. Instead, there’s Anandi’s bewilderment at what is beyond her
comprehension – women working outside the home, the young men's abusive language, the violence
on the streets, the utter lack of interest in other's problems...

This was one of
Meena Kumari’s finest performances, and her Anandi is a quiet but strong
presence. Traditional she may be, but even as a young wife, it is clear that
she has a voice, and is willing to speak up for herself. Perhaps because her
illness had taken its toll on her, Anandi’s younger version is played by Amina
Karim, though Meena Kumari dubbed for both young and old versions, pitching her
voice differently for both roles. Deven Verma (in a cameo) plays her boisterous, blustering husband – one who often threatens to beat her up if she isn't a 'good' wife, but who obviously does nothing of the sort.

Vinod Khanna plays
Shyam with an energy that’s barely controlled – you can sense the turmoil
roiling under the surface, and the violence, when it breaks out, is like
watching a volcano erupt. Complementing him are Paintal (Bansi), Danny
Denzongpa (Sanju), Dinesh Thakur (Billoo) and Sudhir Thakkar (Ranbir).
Shatrughan Sinha as Chennu is more flamboyant, and Asrani (Raghunath) gets a
much more serious role than is usual for him. Shyam’s and Chennu’s personal
rivalry is reflected in the political machinations of the two leaders. Both
Shyam and Chennu are victims of a broken system, and the culmination of their
rivalry leads to a senseless tragedy.

In setting Anandi’s
story against that of Shyam and Chennu and their friends, Mere Apne makes a strong case against a multitude of social ills,
specifically the neglect and exploitation of the elderly, and the political
exploitation of a disillusioned youth whose cynicism colours their views. It
is a theme that Gulzar would return to in Hu
Tu Tu. His sarcastic lyrics for Haalchaal theek thaak haiand the emotional core of Koi hota jisko apnawere beautifully set to music by Salilda.

Many of the cast were FTII graduates, some of them making their debut here, and
Khanna had once complained that they ganged up against him. He felt like an outsider. However, he
was to strike a deep friendship with his director, and Gulzar and he
would go on to collaborate in other films. Meena Kumari, ailing and weak, would spend a lot of time on a bed on the sets, unless called for her shots. She would pass away a few short months after filming.

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